> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Free vs Paid Shipping, Shopify > Free vs Paid Shipping for Shopify stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Order distribution by free-shipping vs paid-shipping. The promotional-cost view: how many orders are subsidising delivery, and what is the cost share of free shipping in the operating model? | | | | ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | Orders split into two buckets: `totalShippingPrice = 0` (free shipping) vs `totalShippingPrice > 0` (paid shipping). Returns count plus £/\$ of revenue per bucket. | | **API endpoint** | `Admin GraphQL. Order.totalShippingPriceSet.shopMoney.amount`. | | **What "free" means here** | The customer paid £0 for shipping. Cause may be a free-shipping promotion, a free-shipping threshold met, a free-shipping promo code, or a B2B contract with free shipping. The card does not separate cause; pair with [Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-methods). | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Shipping prices follow store tax setting; the card's split is on the post-tax amount. | | **Shipping** | The card IS the shipping breakdown. | | **Discounts** | Orders with free-shipping discount codes (`FREESHIP`) typically have `totalShippingPrice` set to 0 (the discount fully offsets); they fall in the free bucket. | | **Refunds** | Refunds DO NOT change the original shipping classification. A refunded paid-shipping order remains in the paid bucket. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Cancelled orders bucket on their original shipping value. | | **Currency** | Multi-currency safe (count + currency-bucketed totals). | | **Channels / sources** | Online + POS (POS rarely charges shipping; most POS orders are in-person and bucket as free). B2B orders often have contractual free shipping. | | **Local pickup / collect-in-store** | Counts as free shipping (`totalShippingPrice = 0`). To filter for true delivery-free, pair with [Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-methods) and exclude `Pickup` / `Local pickup`. | | **Time window** | `30D` (single window) | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card directly; pair with [Shipping %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-cost-as-of-revenue) for the share alarm. | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Shopify data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A UK DTC apparel brand on Shopify, free-shipping threshold £50. Period: 12 Apr 26 to 11 May 26. AOV £62. | Bucket | Order count | Share | Avg shipping paid | Total shipping revenue | | ------------------------------ | ----------- | -------- | ----------------- | ---------------------- | | Free shipping (£0) | 1,584 | 80.1% | £0 | £0 | | Paid shipping (£3.95 standard) | 312 | 15.8% | £3.95 | £1,232 | | Paid shipping (£8.95 next-day) | 82 | 4.1% | £8.95 | £734 | | **Total** | **1,978** | **100%** | **£0.99** | **£1,966** | Five things to notice: 1. **80% free-shipping share is high but consistent with the £50 threshold.** With AOV £62 sitting above the threshold, most orders qualify for free shipping. This is not a problem; it is the policy working. The cost is the foregone shipping revenue: a paid-shipping equivalent at £3.95 × 1,584 = £6,256/month not collected. 2. **Lowering the threshold pushes free share up; raising it pushes share down and AOV up.** A common test: raise threshold from £50 to £65, expect free-share to drop to 60-70% and AOV to rise to £70+. Whether net revenue improves depends on conversion-rate sensitivity. Pair with [AOV](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/average-order-value) and [Conversion Rate](/nerve-centre/shopify/ecommerce_conversion_rate) when adjusting. 3. **Next-day at 4.1% is the urgency-buyer indicator.** These customers paid £8.95 for next-day delivery; they are time-sensitive shoppers. AOV in this segment is typically higher (urgent-need buyers don't price-shop). Worth merchandising premium products to these customers via post-purchase email. 4. **Shipping revenue is meaningful: £1,966 in 30 days, £23,592 annualised.** That offsets a non-trivial share of fulfillment cost. Brands with high free-shipping share often forget shipping is a *revenue line*, not just a cost line. 5. **POS local-pickup excluded by intent here.** This brand has no retail; if it did, POS / pickup orders would all bucket as free (£0 shipping). For omnichannel brands, the headline free-share is inflated by pickup orders; filter to delivery-only for a clean view. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together Free-vs-paid is a single dimension of shipping economics. Pair with these: | Card | Why pair it with Free vs Paid | What the combination tells you | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Total Shipping](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-shipping-revenue) | Total shipping revenue. | Free-share × AOV-impact = the shipping-economics complete view. | | [Shipping %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-cost-as-of-revenue) | Shipping cost as a share of revenue. | High share + high paid bucket = the customer-pain economics. | | [Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-methods) | Method-level breakdown. | Surfaces the specific methods producing the free vs paid split. | | [AOV](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/average-order-value) | Order value drives threshold-crossing. | A free-shipping threshold change is the cleanest experiment in DTC. | | [Discount Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/discounts-given-over-time) | Free-shipping promo events. | Timing of free-shipping campaigns visible here. | | [Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/total-revenue) | Top-line context. | Free-share trend vs revenue trend reveals whether free-shipping is driving growth. | | [`google_ads.google_promo_keywords`](/nerve-centre/google_ads/google_promo_keywords) | Free-shipping promo keyword spend | Aligns paid-search amplification with the free-shipping campaign. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Shopify Admin:** [Analytics → Reports → "Sales by shipping method"](https://admin.shopify.com/reports/sales_by_shipping_method) shows shipping methods with their associated revenue. To get the free-vs-paid split, filter to free-shipping methods and aggregate. There is no single dedicated free-vs-paid tile. Other Shopify Admin views: * **Settings → Shipping & delivery**: shows configured rates and zones. * **Apps like Bold Shipping, ShipperHQ**: surface richer shipping-method analytics. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Shopify Admin:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | -------------------- | ------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time zone** | Boundary days | Standard time-zone gap. | | **POS local pickup** | Either | POS pickup orders have £0 shipping; the card includes them in free. Shopify's report may filter or label them differently. | | **Refunded orders** | Both include original shipping | Both Shopify and the card use the original shipping value at order time. | | **Test orders** | Ours slightly higher | Test order filter not applied. | | **Sync lag** | Ours lower for "today" | 5 to 15 minute index lag. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** This is a Shopify-internal shipping metric. Indirect cross-connector signals: | Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`google_ads.google_promo_keywords`](/nerve-centre/google_ads/google_promo_keywords) | Free-shipping promo campaign spend correlates with free-bucket peaks | Free-shipping advertising in Google often produces an uptick in the free-bucket share. | | [`klaviyo.klaviyo_campaign_revenue`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/klaviyo_campaign_revenue) | Email-driven free-shipping promotions | Same logic. | ***
Same-metric documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) The same definition lives on other commerce platforms. Cross-platform navigation only. * [`bigcommerce.free_vs_paid`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/free-vs-paid-shipping) * [`adobe_commerce.free_vs_paid`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/free-vs-paid-shipping)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is my free-shipping share so high?** Three usual causes: 1. **Threshold below AOV.** If your free-shipping threshold is below your typical AOV, most orders qualify automatically. This is mechanical, not a problem. 2. **Always-on free-shipping campaign.** Some brands run perpetual free-shipping; the bucket dominates by design. 3. **B2B contractual free shipping.** B2B orders with negotiated rates often have £0 shipping, inflating the free-bucket share. **How do I lift the paid-shipping share?** * Raise the free-shipping threshold (most direct lever). * Make free shipping promo-only rather than always-on. * Offer paid premium shipping (next-day, two-day) as an option above the free standard. **Does local pickup count as free shipping?** Yes by default. To split pickup vs delivery free-shipping, use [Shipping Methods](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/shipping-methods) and exclude pickup methods. **Multi-currency, any impact?** The split is currency-blind (each currency reports its own free-vs-paid). For combined views, filter to a single presentment currency. **Shopify Plus vs basic?** No definitional difference. Plus stores using carrier-calculated rates can show more granular shipping-method splits; the free-vs-paid headline is identical. **Refresh cadence?** 5 to 15 minute index lag. The 30-day window updates each cycle. **B2B vs DTC?** B2B often has structural free shipping (contractual). Mixed stores benefit from filtering by tag (manual today; on roadmap) for clean DTC analysis. **The card moved, what should I do?** 1. Check whether a free-shipping promotion launched / ended. 2. Check whether the threshold was changed. 3. Check whether AOV moved (a rising AOV pushes more orders over threshold automatically). 4. If unexpected, audit checkout flow; a configuration change may have broken paid-shipping methods. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Free vs Paid Shipping* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Shopify and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.